As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
The variety of hardware components that may be configured to operate as an information handling system are conventionally installed in dedicated information technology (IT) equipment space along with necessary support and backup systems. One such equipment space is outlined in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional equipment space for information handling systems. Equipment space 100 may include racks 102A, 102B, and 102C of information technology (IT) equipment. Support systems for the IT equipment may also be located in the equipment space 100, such as power subsystems 104 and backup batteries 106. The equipment space 100 also conventionally includes dedicated cooling units 108 (e.g., units 108A and 108B). The equipment space 100 is generally space set apart in a building or other location to be used for racks 102A, 102B, and 102C. A staging area 110 outside the building may be used for delivery of new IT equipment for installation into racks 102A, 102B, and 102C.
The arrangement of equipment space 100 and staging area 110 has drawbacks that are particularly disadvantageous with large scale and growing information handling systems. For example, when additional IT equipment is needed or desired to support additional information or users, the IT equipment is delivered to the staging area 110 by truck, and administrators then un-package and de-trash the IT equipment and install in the racks 102A, 102B, and 102C. The staging area 110 conventionally is an outdoor area or partially sheltered area that is not climate controlled and may be partially exposed to the elements. However, during un-packaging in staging area 110, the IT equipment may be exposed to the elements, such as cold, heat, rain, snow, ice, or high humidity. The elements may damage or shorten the life of the new IT equipment. For example, when there is a large temperature difference between outside and inside moving IT equipment into the equipment space 100 may cause condensation to form in the IT equipment. Further, when the administrators install new IT equipment in racks 102A, 102B, or 102C, the installation may cause interruptions to service provided by existing IT equipment. IT equipment often supports 24/7 operations within a business, and thus any interruption is undesirable and can impact the business.
During the electronic information era of the last few decades the amount of information being stored and processed has grown rapidly and continues to grow rapidly. Further, companies' reliance on information handling systems has increased such that interruptions in operations of the information handling systems can cripple the business. Not only are companies' own information handling systems growing rapidly, but new businesses have appeared whose sole service is to provide cloud computing or cloud storage. Such businesses are even less tolerant of IT equipment outage. Further, such businesses have more rapid growth that increases the frequency of installation of new IT equipment. With each new installation comes the increased possibility of an outage, because administrators are accessing shared space with existing IT equipment and may unintentionally interrupt operation of existing IT equipment.